Date: Wed, 8 May 2002 10:00:12 -0400 (EDT) From: Robert Watson <rwatson@freebsd.org> To: Michael Smith <msmith@mass.dis.org> Cc: hackers@freebsd.org Subject: Re: It's not fun anymore. (Mike resigns from core) Message-ID: <Pine.NEB.3.96L.1020508094037.83455Q-100000@fledge.watson.org> In-Reply-To: <200205081029.g48AT0Z1013171@mass.dis.org>
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On Wed, 8 May 2002, Michael Smith wrote: > It's not anymore. It's about bylaws and committees and reports and > milestones, telling others what to do and doing what you're told. It's > about who can rant the longest or shout the loudest or mislead the most > people into a bloc in order to legitimise doing what they think is best. > Individuals notwithstanding, the project as a whole has lost track of > where it's going, and has instead become obsessed with process and > mechanics. > > So I'm leaving core. I don't want to feel like I should be "doing > something" about a project that has lost interest in having something > done for it. I don't have the energy to fight what has clearly become a > losing battle; I have a life to live and a job to keep, and I won't > achieve any of the goals I personally consider worthwhile if I remain > obligated to care for the project. Well, I think I speak for everyone in the project when I say that we're sorry to hear that you are resigning from the core team, and that I hope that you'll choose to remain involved in the project in the manner you feel both able and willing. Your contributions in both the technical space (expecially relating to hardware support for RAID, and especially of late relating to ACPI) have been greatly appreciated, as have your contributions to managing the project and setting its direction. In all institutions, there are the inevitable politics, and the inevitable noise. That noise can become overwhelming, especially when the noisy people are quite noisy and Feel They Must Be Heard; that said, while I sympathize with your viewpoint, I'm not sure I agree with the fundamental conclusion. My only suggestion would be that you do exactly what you are already doing. Take a step back (maybe two), and do the things that you find personally motivating--spending time on things that leave you with this kind of feeling isn't what it's all about. See if some combination of the project growing and your being less involved makes things sufficiently palatable for you to become more involved again. > I started work on FreeBSD because it was fun. If I'm going to continue, > it has to be fun again. There are things I still feel obligated to do, > and with any luck I'll find the time to meet those obligations. That's more than we can ask of you, and something we're lucky if you want to do. :-) > However I don't feel an obligation to get involved in the political mess > the project is in right now. I tried, I burnt out. I don't feel that > my efforts were worthwhile. So I won't be standing for election, I > won't be shouting from the sidelines, and I probably won't vote in the > next round of ballots. > > You could say I'm packing up my toys. I'm not going home just yet, but > I'm not going to play unless you can work out how to make the project > somewhere fun to be again. I think it's still fun for many people involved, or more of them would long since have left. I know I personally enjoy this work a great deal, and that's why I spend so much time on it. I also know that it's not the political fray that I'm here for--it's the fascinating technical work, the challenge of the operating system environment, and the opportunity to do some new and really exciting things with a number of other people who feel the same way. The FreeBSD Project has proven in the past, and still proves to be, an excellent vehicle for people who have a technical vision and technical expertise to explore both of them, and at the end of the day, produce a piece of software that lets hundreds of millions of people a day do their work. We need to look at this past success to see the success we can have in the future. I agree that there needs to be change in the areas you've pointed at--I've taken note, and I hope that others will too. Thanks again for everything you've done, Robert N M Watson FreeBSD Core Team, TrustedBSD Project robert@fledge.watson.org NAI Labs, Safeport Network Services To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-hackers" in the body of the message
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